The Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku has unveiled vending machines in the country’s second-largest city of Yokohama to offer whale steak, bacon and sashimi in a bid to ramp up consumption.
Shortly before, the firm set up two similar outlets in the capital Tokyo, amid plans to open a fourth one in the western city of Osaka in February and to grow to 100 locations over the next five years.
This July 2, 2019 picture shows Tsukiji's whale meat restaurant Tomisui manager Sumiko Koizumi (R) talking with whale meat dealer at her restaurant in Tokyo
© AFP 2023 / KARYN NISHIMURA
Speaking at the opening ceremony in Yokohama, Kyodo Senpaku president Hideki Tokoro told reporters that he hopes the "unmanned store" will revive sales of whale food, which has been shunned by many shops.
"There are many major supermarkets that are afraid of being harassed by anti-whaling groups so they won't use whale. So there are many people who want to eat whale but can't. Therefore, we are opening stores with the thought that we can provide a place where those people can eat," he said.
Conservationists have, meanwhile, accused Kyodo Senpaku of making a “desperate attempt” to “prop up the cruel and declining whale industry in Japan.”
According to Katrin Matthes of the global charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation, "Most Japanese people have never ever tried it. So how can it be something you call a nationwide culture if nobody's really participating in it?"
In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling after a spate of whale species came close to extinction. Japan, however, continued hunting whales for what it said were research purposes. The country withdrew from the IWC and resumed commercial whaling in 2019.
Campaigners are concerned over the fact that meat of whales, dolphins and great white sharks remain part of traditional Japanese cuisine, which is still being used in modern-day restaurants across the country.